Wipro’s consumer business might touch the $1 billion mark by next year

The company has also cut down on underperforming brands across major geographiesAnirban Sen | ET Bureau | April 14, 2016, 09:23 IST

Image credit: ThinkstockWipro’s consumer care and lighting business expects to touch the $1-billion revenue milestone by next year, even as the company cuts down on underperforming brands across all its major geographies and focuses the majority of its resources towards growing flagship brands such as Yardley and Santoor, a top company executive said.

In an interview, Wipro consumer care and lighting CEO Vineet Agrawal said that the company had also been grappling with the negative impact of currency fluctuations over the past year or two and hence had been slightly delayed in reaching the $1-billion mark. For the latest fiscal, the company expects to end with about Rs 6,000 crore (about $901 million) in revenue. The company currently generates about 51% of overall revenues from international markets. “In the next one year, we should hit that ($1 billion) figure. Next year we should, unless something happens to the currency. Last year we could’ve hit that number if the currency had stayed stable,” Agrawal told ET. "For example, the Malaysian currency crashed -- the average currency impact last year versus the US dollar was about 20%. So, that was a big impact on business." Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, which demerged from Wipro’s core IT business in November 2012, has over the past few years also cut down on a number of its brands and products, as the company wants to focus on select flagship brands.

"For example, when we took over Unza we had 48 brands. We’ve brought it down to 22. That’s been a big cutdown. That’s overall. But in each country, we-’ve cut down -- for instance, in Middle East we used to have 7-8 brands. We’ve cut down to 1. And now we’re adding two more. And in Unza, we’ve actually grown revenues not by adding brands, but by deleting brands," said Agrawal, who took charge of Wipro’s consumer business in 2002. "We’ve cut down on brands to ensure we get more focused and grow them by doing a focused strategy rather than spreading ourselves thin," he said. Wipro acquired Singapore-based Unza in 2007 for $246 million. Wipro’s Santoor brand currently holds the number 3 position in the market, Agrawal said.